Thomas Cole
| birth_place = Bolton, Lancashire, England | death_date = February | death_place = Catskill]], New York | nationality = American | field = Painting | training = | movement = Hudson River School | works = The Titan's Goblet (1833), The Oxbow (1836), The Course of Empire, The Voyage of Life | patrons = | influenced by = | influenced =Asher B. Durand and Frederic Edwin Church | awards = }} Thomas Cole (February 1, 1801 - February 11, 1848) was an American poet and artist. Life Overview Cole was born at Bolton-le-Moors, England, on the 1st of February 1801. In 1819 the family emigrated to America, settling in Philadelphia and then at Steubenville, Ohio, where Cole learned the rudiments of his profession from a wandering portrait painter named Stein. He went about the country painting portraits, but with little financial success. Moving to New York (1825), he displayed some landscapes in the window of an eating-house, where they attracted the attention of painter Col. Trumbull, who sought him out, bought a canvas, and found him patrons. From this time Cole was prosperous. He is best remembered by a series of pictures consisting of four canvases representing "The Voyage of Life," and another series of five canvases representing "The Course of Empire," the latter now in the gallery of the New York Historical Society. They were allegories, in the taste of the day, and became exceedingly popular, being reproduced in engravings with great success. The work, however, was meretricious, the sentiment false, artificial and conventional, and the artist's genuine fame must rest on his landscapes, which, though thin in the painting, hard in the handling, and not infrequently painful in detail, were at least earnest endeavours to portray the world out of doors as it appeared to the painter; their failings were the result of Cole's environment and training. He had an influence on his time and his fellows which was considerable, and with Durand he may be said to have founded the early school of American landscape painters. Cole spent the years1829-1832 and1841-1842 abroad, mainly in Italy, and at Florence lived with the sculptor Greenough. After 1827 he had a studio in the Catskills which furnished the subjects of some of his canvases, and he died at Catskill, New York, on the 11th of February 1848.Britanica 1911, 6, 668. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century, known for its realistic and detailed portrayals of American landscape and wilderness, which feature themes of romanticism and naturalism.[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/125174/Thomas-Cole, Encyclopædia Britannica] Retrieved December 15, 2010 Youth and education Cole was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England in 1801. In 1818 his family emigrated to the United States, settling in Steubenville, Ohio, where Cole learned the rudiments of his profession from a wandering portrait painter named Stein. However, he had little success painting portraits, and his interest shifted to landscape. Moving to Pittsburgh in 1823 and then to Philadelphia in 1824, where he drew from casts at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, he rejoined his parents and sister in New York City early in 1825. Painting In New York he sold 5 paintings to George W. Bruen, who financed a summer trip to the Hudson Valley where he produced 2 Views of Coldspring, the Catskill Mountain House and painted famous Kaaterskill Falls and the ruins of Fort Putnam. http://hamiltonauctiongalleries.com/COLE-T25FP.JPG Returning to New York he displayed 5 landscapes in the window of William Coleman's bookstore; according to the New York Evening Post. 2 Views of Coldspring were purchased by Mr. A. Seton, who lent them to the American Academy of the Fine Arts annual exhibition in 1826. This garnered Cole the attention of John Trumbull, Asher B. Durand, and William Dunlap. Among the paintings was a landscape called "View of Fort Ticonderoga from Gelyna". Trumbull was especially impressed with the work of the young artist and sought him out, bought one of his paintings, and put him into contact with a number of his wealthy friends including Robert Gilmor of Baltimore and Daniel Wadsworth of Hartford, who became important patrons of the artist. Cole was primarily a painter of landscapes, but he also painted allegorical works. The most famous of these are the 5-part series, The Course of Empire, which depict the same landscape over generations — from a near state of nature to consummation of empire, and then decline and desolution—now in the collection of the New York Historical Society and the 4-part The Voyage of Life. There are 2 versions of the latter, at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York. Among Cole's other famous works are the Oxbow (1836) (pictured below), the Notch of the White Mountains, Daniel Boone at His cabin at the Great Osage Lake, and Lake with Dead Trees (1825) which is at the Allen Memorial Art Museum.Property and Progress: Antebellum Landscape Art and Property Law He also painted The Garden of Eden (1828), with lavish detail of Adam and Eve living amid waterfalls, vivid plants, and deer.Exhibit at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas Cole influenced his artistic peers, especially Asher B. Durand and Frederic Edwin Church, who studied with Cole from 1844 to 1846. Cole spent the years 1829 to 1832 and 1841 to 1842 abroad, mainly in England and Italy. Graphic Work Thomas Cole is best known for his work as an American landscape artist. However, Cole also produced thousands of sketches of varying subject matter. Over 2,500 of these sketches can be seen at The Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1842, Cole embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe in an effort to study in the style of the Old Masters and to paint its scenery. Most striking to Cole was Europe's tallest active volcano, Mount Etna (Regarding the title: "Etna" is the more common spelling in the present day, but "Aetna" was a common nineteenth-century variant). Cole was so moved by the volcano's beauty that he produced several sketches and at least six paintings of it. "Studies on Thomas Cole" Baltimore Museum of Art, Annual II. pp. 123. Baltimore, Maryland 1967. The most famous of these works is A View from Mount Etna from Taormina which is a 78x120 in. oil on canvas. Cole also produced a highly detailed sketch of it entitled View of Mount Etna, which shows a panoramic view of the volcano with the crumbling walls of the ancient Greek theatre of Taormina on the far right. Cole dabbled in architecture, a not uncommon practice at the time when the profession was not so codified. Cole was an entrant in the design competition held in 1838 to create the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. His entry won 3rd premium, and many contend that the finished building, a composite of the top 3 entries, bears a great similarity to Cole's entry. After 1827 Cole maintained a studio at the farm called Cedar Grove in the town of Catskill, New York. He painted a significant portion of his work in this studio. In 1836 he married Maria Bartow of Catskill, a niece of the owner, and became a year-round resident. Thomas and Maria had five children: * Theodore Alexander Cole, born January 1, 1838 * Mary Bartow Cole, born September 23, 1839 * Emily Cole, born August 27, 1843 * Elizabeth Cole, born April 5, 1847 (died in infancy) * Thomas Cole, Jr., born September 16, 1848 Thomas Cole died at Catskill on February 11, 1848. Recognition Cole's pictures are in many public and private collections. His Expulsion from the Garden of Eden is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The 4th highest peak in the Catskills is named Thomas Cole Mountain in his honor.Cedar Grove History Cedar Grove, also known as the Thomas Cole House, was declared a National Historic Site in 1999 and is now open to the public. Publications Poetry * Thomas Cole's Poetry: The collected poems of America's foremost painter of the Hudson River School reflecting his feelings for nature and the romantic spirit of the nineteenth century. (compiled and edited by Marshall B. Tymn). York, PA: Liberty Cap Books, 1972. Prose * "Essay on American Scenery," American Monthly Magazine 1 (January 1836): 1-12. * The Collected Essays and Prose Sketches (edited By Marshall Tymn). St. Paul, MN: The John Colet Press, 1980. Letters * The Correspondence Of Thomas Cole and Daniel Wadsworth: Letters in the Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford and New York State Library, Albany NY (edited by J. Bard McNulty). Hartford, CT: Connecticut Historical Society, 1983. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Thomas Cole National Historic Site.Learn More, ExploreThomasCole.org, Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Web, May 6, 2012. Art Image:Thomas_Cole_The_Garden_of_Eden_Amon_Carter_Museum.jpg|''The Garden of Eden, 1828. File:Distant_View_of_Niagara_Falls_1830_Thomas_Cole.jpg|''Distant View of Niagara Falls, 1830. See also * List of U.S. poets References }}. Wikisource, Web, Apr. 14, 2018. Notes External links ;Poems * Cole, Thomas (1 poem) at Representative Poetry Online ;Art *Works by Thomas Cole at the Cincinnati Art Museum *White Mountain paintings by Thomas Cole *Reynolda House Museum of American Art ;Books *Thomas Cole at Amazon.com ;About * Thomas Cole at NNDB. * Thomas Cole (1801-1848) at Artchive. * Information about Thomas Cole can be found in the Thomas Cole Collection, which contains correspondence, financial and legal documents, clippings, exhibition catalogs, poems related to him and his family, in the Albany Institute of History & Art Library. *Thomas Cole's Journal, 1834-1848. The journal, which was digitized by the New York State Library, contains scattered handwritten entries from November 5, 1834, through February 1, 1848. *Thomas Cole at Find a Grave * Original article is at "Cole, Thomas" ;Etc. *Hiking Thomas Cole Mountain Catskill 3500 Club *Cedar Grove - The Thomas Cole National Historical Site in Catskill, NY *Thomas A. Cole Papers, 1821-1863. This finding aid contains biographical information about Cole and describes the collection of his papers (correspondence, journals, notebooks, essays and poetry) held by the New York State Library. Category:1801 births Category:1848 deaths Category:American painters Category:American people of English descent Category:Landscape artists Category:People from Bolton Category:Hudson River School Category:19th-century poets Category:American poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets